1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a filter housing for exchangeable filters, having a housing base for accommodating the filter and having a housing dome that engages over the filter. The housing base and the housing dome can be connected to one another by an aseptic clamping connection that has a groove-type clamping fitting on the housing base and a flange-type clamping fitting on the housing dome, these being fixed against one another in their connected position by a clamp. The groove-type clamping fitting has a seal groove with a seal by means of which the groove-type clamping fitting can be sealed off with respect to the flange-type clamping fitting. The housing base has a port for the supply of liquid to be filtered and a port for the discharge of filtered liquid. The housing base has a base surface adjacent to the face surface of the inserted filter and transverse to the longitudinal axis of the housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A filter housing for the filtration of liquids in the biopharmaceutical industry is known from the corporate brochure “Products and Solutions for the Biopharmaceutical Industry” from Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH.
Filter housings for exchangeable filters are composed of a housing base for accommodating the filter and a housing dome that engages over the filter. The housing base and the housing dome are connected to one another by an aseptic clamping connection. The housing base has a groove-type clamping fitting that is connected by a clamp to a flange-type clamping fitting of the housing dome. The groove-type clamping fitting has a seal groove with an O-ring seal for sealing off the groove-type clamping fitting with respect to the flange-type clamping fitting. The housing base has a port for the supply of liquid to be filtered and has a port for the discharge of filtered liquid. The housing base has a base surface that is adjacent to the face surface of the inserted filter and transverse to the longitudinal axis. The base surface has a central opening leading to the outflow duct that issues into the port for the discharge of the filtered liquid.
A disadvantage of the known filter housing, which with regard to its aseptic clamping connection conforms to DIN 11864-3 and DIN 11853-3 and which has basically proven successful, is that, during evacuation of the filter housing, liquid can be left behind on the base surface in the direction of the face surface of the filter.
The problem addressed by the present invention is therefore that of improving the known filter housing such that as far as possible no liquid residues are left behind both during filtering and also during cleaning or rinsing processes.